Father Abraham....

So... there's some big news, many of you would have heard by now, but I felt I should blog about so as to dispel any rumours that may arise.

Last Monday, I resigned from my position as the Youth & Children's worker at The Salvation Army Torquay. I did not do this in anger or hurt, but because I really felt that God was calling me on from there. This is a hard concept for many people to understand, but it was something I felt I had to do.

This is how it came about.

In Febuary, I felt called by God to be a Salvation Army Officer. More than that, I felt that I needed to go in 2009. For those who don't know, there is a long process you need to go through before you can go to Training College, there are assignments, forms, fundraising and about a million other little things that need to be done in your preparation. If I was planning to go to College in later years, I could have done all of these things at Torquay, however, as a church plant, who have limited team members, and a constant flow of events, programs and the likes, to get all this done, and be the person solely responsible for the development of Youth & Children's programs, I just couldn't do it in 10 months.

Also, things have been growing so rapidly over the past few months, new ministries and programs need to be established, but I don't feel it's fair to start new things, when someone else is going to be coming into my job in 6 months. So I started to feel as though, perhaps, now is a good time for someone to come in and take the ministry to the next level. That I've planted the foundations, but it was time to hand over and allow someone else to cultivate and harvest.

About 3 weeks before the Candidates weekend, I was feeling the pressure of trying to get things done, and how it was all going to happen. I spoke to a few of my mentors about it, and we were praying through options.

I went into Candidates Weekend unsure of what to do, or what God was requiring me to do. I still felt unsure right up until the Sunday morning when the Commissioner spoke and told this amazing story about the lessons a man learned from trying out the trapeze. It's kinda a long story but the shortened version is that he learned three lessons:
1. In order to get there (to the other side), you need to leave here (where you are standing).
2. You need to decide let go of your safety and security in order to get there. (changing from one swing to the other)
3. You don't have a lot of time to make the decision.

As he spoke, I just knew, God was saying "Sarah do you really trust me?" and of course you say "yes Lord", but that pesky God of ours asked again, and I had to admit that I don't trust God with every part of my life, only the small things. A friend confirmed that by asking whether I'd listened to what had just been said. Then I spoke to someone who's mentoring me a bit at the moment and she said "Yes I've felt that for a little while", and then finally, a good mate said to me "Sarah I feel as though God's asking me to remind you of Abraham and Isaac".

I knew what that meant. God asked Abraham to sacrifice his son Isaac to prove that he trusted God with every aspect of his life (in case you don't know the story - God comes through right at the last hour to stop the sacrifice!). I believe God is asking the same thing of me - sacrifice my comfort and security of a job, in order to show that I believe God when He says He will provide all my needs. It's a lesson I need to learn - that God will indeed take care of me if I hand my entire life over to Him.

So as painful as it was to tell the kids on Sunday, and as hard as it will be to say goodbye to the great friends I've made in Torquay, I need to do this, because it's what God is asking me to do.

God's already provided some interesting job options to explore. I don't know where they will lead right now, but they're there, and I'm trusting God's got the next step in store already!

So that's my story - I'm going to be an Abraham, and make a sacrifice for Him.

But I carry with me the love and good times I've had during my time at Torquay Salvos! I know I'll be a better officer because of it.